Rihanna performs during her Diamonds World Tour at Honda Center on Tuesday. KELLY A. SWIFT, FOR THE REGISTER

Set list: Rihanna at Honda Center

Main set: Mother Mary > Phresh Out the Runway > Birthday Cake > Talk That Talk / Pour It Up > Cockiness (Love It) / Numb / You da One / Man Down / No Love Allowed > Rude Boy / What's My Name? / Jump > Umbrella > All of the Lights (snippet) > Rockstar 101 / What Now / Loveeeeeee Song > Medley: Love the Way You Lie (Part II) > Take a Bow > Cold Case Love / Hate That I Love You / We Found Love > Medley: S&M > Only Girl (In the World) > Don't Stop the Music / Where Have You Been

Encore: Stay / Diamonds

RiRi strikes a pose 'Phresh Out the Runway' in Anaheim. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register

Maybe you headed north to Staples Center to see her sold-out return Monday night. Or maybe you're headed south to catch her Thursday at the smallest spot she plays on her Southern California run, San Diego's Valley View Casino Center.

I chose to skip the big L.A. bash and stay closer to home, taking in Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour – her fifth outing overall and third arena production this decade alone – at Honda Center, where the 25-year-old Barbadian beauty delighted another capacity crowd of mostly young women competing to see who could pull off the wildest club wear.

It was a wise decision. The latest hits-stuffed spectacle from the astonishingly prolific tabloid target offers a handful of striking moments but also twice as many wasted opportunities. There's hardly enough wow to merit the Madonna comparisons tossed her way or explain why RiRi has risen to the same international mega-star level as Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga.

For fans eager to party, rarely a discerning bunch when it comes to spending triple-digits on idols, her four-part extravaganza is a 100-minute must-see treat, teeming with skimpy yet stylish outfits, plenty of sultry rump-shaking and crotch-caressing, more than two dozen jams of varying grooves in one almost nonstop mix, and enough pyrotechnic dazzle to distract attention when her legs, almost always in thigh-high boots, don't do all the work.

But for those of us measuring Rihanna's latest sprawl against those of her forebears and contemporaries, her latest package isn't worth more than a 20-minute drive to witness. The trouble is that this formidable talent still hasn't figured out how to perpetually reinvent herself, as all smart divas do, without fully shedding previous personae, since that's what attracted everyone in the first place.

Not that it's criminal for this tour to find Chris Brown's can-do-better girlfriend mostly forsaking her first three albums, setting aside singles like "Disturbia" and "SOS" and even "Pon de Replay" in favor of an overwhelming amount from her last two discs, the electro-heavy Talk That Talk (2011) and last year's counterpart Unapologetic. Those intriguing (if also uneven) collections cap a shift that has taken the darker hints of 2007's skyrocketing Good Girl Gone Bad to their erotic limits faster than the grande dame of porn-pop went from "Like a Virgin" to her Sex book.

The equivalency of skipping earlier innocent material would be, say, Madonna not including at least one formative single per show, or Gaga ditching "Poker Face" so soon into her career. It's an admirably bold move on Rihanna's part, yet it also speaks to a schism in her stardom.

Her outward image now as blunted as her banging sound, she's settling into a weird lethargy and enigmatic aloofness. She's got enough hot moves to make it seem like a privilege to sit so close you can watch her pull out a wedgie, but nothing about her performance gave off genuine heat. Her fireballs had more impact.

The program is divided into four parts, although with differences so subtle that sameness sets in before the second portion has ended. That only heightens how much Rihanna appears to saunter through her show half-engaged, rarely delivering songs with the envelope-pushing flourishes they deserve, and often not making a proper effort to sing choruses (most obviously during the pony-riding of "Jump").

At times it felt like she was saving her underestimated pipes for a big balladic finish, when she really let loose with "Stay" to start the encore and proved worthy of the Grammys she has snagged. Rarely has someone garnered such enormous crowds for actually doing so little on stage.

The opening segment has so much wasted promise, even the liveliest moments from the rest of the production couldn't restore hope that she'd achieve cohesion, the way her superiors do.

Spartan in the most attractive way possible, with many cues taken from Kanye West's staggering Coachella set of 2010 (sans so much pageantry), it starts with Rihanna on her knees for the dramatic "Mother Mary," as if confessing her sins before she's done anything wrong, then dazzles as she quickly disappears and re-enters from the back of the stage, strutting "Phresh Out the Runway" and making pulses race with a salacious slice of "Birthday Cake." But then the seduction fizzles out, with hard-core bits like "Pour It Up" and "Cockiness (Love It)" failing to connect at libido level.

Rihanna lets out a wide smile at Honda Center. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register

The second and fourth portions are the tightest, both with noticeable nods to M.I.A.'s revolution rock and Lil Wayne's brand of syrupy hip-hop.

The former section gathers up Ri's strongest island dancehall sides (the terrific "You Da One," the glorifying "Man Down" and "Rude Boy") and parades them with stark authenticity matched by a black-and-white mug-shot visual scheme. The latter closes out the main set with a rave-ready medley – "S&M" into a pose-heavy "Only Girl (In the World)" and finally "Don't Stop the Music" – whereas too often in this fleeting show, Rihanna resorts to frustrating trimming.

Sometimes that's necessary: Without her co-stars, how else can she present Kanye and Eminem collaborations "All of the Lights" and "Love the Way You Lie," respectively, other than in snippets? But why shorten "Umbrella"? Even "Stay," a spotlight moment worth the wait, seemed abbreviated.

And why did nothing seem as thought-out as the set pieces that stick in the mind from previous tours? There's so much more she could bring to her still-developing performances. Yet in Anaheim there were too many times when it looked as though she couldn't wait to be done.

That's a strange vibe to give off, given how sincerely she regards her sizeable American fan base. But as a superstar turn, her show is merely a stoner's tour de force. If you're on her wavelength and inhaling deeply, it gives off a hazy glow. Otherwise, it's half-baked.

And worrisome enough to wonder whether her creativity is already peaking. Nothing about this glittering but lumbering gig suggests she has many untapped reserves of reinvention left.

A$AP Rocky, breakout hip-hop star from Harlem, didn't provide much reason to show up early, or even late. (He didn't wrap up until after 9, Rihanna didn't come on until 10.) There's some trenchant wit behind his hard-hitting rhymes, and a strange magnetism to how he routinely returns to sitting slouched on his giant white throne. But unless his street-rough appeal has already struck a chord with you – it had with many at Honda Center, who were audibly bummed when he announced his time was up – there's little about Rocky's opening set that would convince you to check him out further.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky play again April 11 at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego and April 12 at Mandalay Bay Resort Event Center in Las Vegas on Friday. Tickets are sold out, try StubHub.com.

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